The architecture of Egypt’s Ard El-Lewa settlement will be exhibited at the Architecture Biennale in Venice’s Egyptian Pavilion this May, after being featured at China’s Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. The exhibition, which will take place from May 28 to November 27, “will be about focusing and learning from architectures that through intelligence, intuition or both of them at the same time, are able to escape the status quo.” At the Chinese exhibition, which came to a close earlier this week, the informal settlement was displayed under the Radical Urbanism section and included a large model of the area and case studies of existing buildings and projects. Architect and urban designer Charlotte Malterre-Barthes explained to the Cairo Observer that she is “working against the negative perception attached to informal areas and for a stronger engagement of architects and designers” in neighborhoods such as Ard El-Lewa and hope to see the government integrate such areas into the rest of the city. Although Egypt’s informal settlements are widely regarded as burdensome eyesores, Malterre-Barthes described Ard El-Lewa as a “vibrant, inclusive and inventive” area and said that the growth of informal urbanization in Cairo…
Egyptian Informal Settlements to be Displayed at Architecture Exhibit in Venice
March 5, 2016
